Power-plant

A GN Condenser (also known as GN Capacitor or GN Particle Tank) is a GN Particles capacitor in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 used to aid in the distribution of energy and fuel for mobile suits and their weapons.

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Description & Characteristics

A GN Condenser holds onto excess GN Particles for the mobile suit to fuel various functions within its frame without the need to redirect GN Particles from other systems. The material itself has been not clearly defined, and the material(s) that GN Condensers are composed of have never been properly identified. This highly durable material can be weaponized, capable of retaining intense heats and generating beam energy. Celestial Being was able to perfect said weaponization with the development of the GN-0000/7S 00 Gundam Seven Sword. The data from this unit would later be used to create a new generation of solid GN Particle blade weapons that could both cut through objects with even greater efficiency and be used to either generate a beam saber or simulate beam fire. GN Condensers can be divided into 2 different sub-classes: the "Frame-Type" variant and the "Drive-Type" variant.

Frame-Type

The first and most commons are the numerous, miniature condensers that are distributed throughout a GN mobile suit's body. Physically, they appear as orb-shaped devices, and are used to supply power to different sections of the suit and keep an excess amount of GN Particles stored for future use. Because the supply of GN Particles a GN Drive can provide at any given time is limited, the Drive alone is not be able to provide the amount of particles needed to perform a specific function should it exceed the Drive's output rate.[1] With GN Condensers implemented, a mobile suit that expends more GN Particles than are being generated, the store of GN Particles within the condensers can add to the overall particle supply available to the mobile suit. When the mobile suit is producing excess particles, such as when the mobile suit is on standby, the excess particles are redirected to the GN Condensers to recharge them.[1] GN Condensers of this type are also often integrated into the weapons of a mobile suit for a similar purpose.

The color of the GN Condensers on "Original Drive" mobile suits are typically green, while the condensers on GN Drive Tau-use mobile suits tend to be either violet or blue. It should be noted, however, that the color of neither the GN Particles nor the condensers themselves automatically denotes the GN Particles that are stored within. An example of this deception would be the Tau Drive-equipped Gundam Astraea, which possesses green condensers but uses orange-colored GN Particles. These body condensers can also be used for communications purposes among friendly units.[1]

While Tau Drive mobile suits also make use GN Condensers like Original Drive mobile suits do, their ability to store particles are relatively more limited than those of Original Drive mobile suits.[2][3] The reason why this is so is because their finite operational time limits the total amount of particles they can produce before running out of electricity reserves. Original Drives on the other hand, can continuously recharge their GN Condensers without any risk of exhausting their energy supplies.

Drive-Type

The other class of GN Condenser is the larger, high-capacity variant. These are usually used by Celestial Being to either act as an actual replacement of a GN Drive on both their older mobile suits (since they do not have any spare GN Drives), or as the primary power-plant of support units such as the GNR-010 0 Raiser, GNR-101A GN Archer and even on ships like the CBS-70 Ptolemaios. This form of the condenser usually releases its stored GN Particles at a stable, steady output rate until depleted although instant depletion of the whole storage is also an option through Trans-Am.[4] One weakness of the Large GN Condenser is that it possess inferior operational time relative to Tau Drives,[5][6] which store energy in the form of electricity before conversion to GN Particles.[2] While these large GN Condensers are usually used as GN Drive substitutes, they are sometimes used to further enhance particle capacity of mobile suits who already possess GN Drive powerplants. Examples of suits that utilize this include the Brave Test Types as well as one of optional setups for the GN-XIV. In cases such as 00 Gundam Seven Sword/G, the large condensers were used in existing GN Drive chassis designs, whereas in cases like 0 Gundam A.C.D. and Exia Repair III, a new unique chassis design was used instead.

Miscellaneous

Aside from mobile weapons, GN Condensers are also used as the main power source for A-LAWS' automatons.[7] The handgun that Ali used to shoot Setsuna in Krugis also appear to have GN Particle residue and effect though its unknown whether it makes use of a GN Condenser in any capacity. By 2364, new generation space suits appear to be equipped with parts that resemble GN Condensers though it is unconfirmed at this point whether they are or aren't GN Condensers.

"GN Particle Distribution System"

The "GN Particle Distribution System" (unofficial name) is a system used by GN based mobile suits to transfer GN Particles within their own bodies among the GN Drive, GN Condensers, and other equipment in the mobile suits. They are three types of particle distribution systems that has been observed so far:

"Large Purple Cables" Type

The first system is one that uses large purple cables to transfer the particles within the mobile suit and is used by Celestial Being up until 2308. Among the three types, this one is the most easily recognizable due to the cables being visible from the outside. When Trans-Am is used, the cables would light up in a noticeable deep red color compared to the rest of the mobile suit.[8][9][10][11] The exposed cables are actually weakpoints of the Gundams,[1] though the weight manipulation ability of an exposed particle cable can greatly improve mobility.[1] Gundam Exia makes extensive use of this concept by having more exposed cables than its three brethren units[1] and as a result, contributes to its superior mobility at the cost of defense.[1]

"Direct Body" Type

The second system advanced direct body system where the particles are directly transferred via the actual body using direct links.[12] So far, the only units confirmed to be using this type are the Gundam Thrones.[12] The advantage of this system over the "large purple cable" type is that it is lighter due to the lack of cables.[12] Since many Tau Drive suits (such as the GN-X series) are related to the Thrones genealogical wise, it's likely that they inherited this system though information to confirm this is absent.

"Cables-Within-Armor" Type

The last system appears to be a hybrid of the two systems, where cables would still be used but is internalize within the armor instead.[13][1] This type was used by Celestial Being starting with their 2312 models[13]. Celestial Being also retrofitted this into Exia Repair II as a solution to its weakness of having vulnerable exposed cables.[1]

Picture Gallery

Notes and Trivia

According to translator mike_s_6 in her translation of the PG 1/60 00 Raiser manual, the romanization of the katakana コンデンサー appears to be "capacitor" though it is literally read/pronounced as "condenser".